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Solar can be intrusive. Many of the current systems have bulky equipment that takes up a lot of space and that can be considered unattractive even to the point that some homeowner associations actually ban them.
But it isn’t just vanity driving that call, it’s also the use of space. In many cases there isn’t room to install solar panels because of the space needed by the hardware.
Panels also can be limited by the performance of the technology, meaning they have to be installed in a manner to receive direct sunlight, most often westward-facing to receive the strength of the afternoon sunlight.
This is where an innovative approach steps in.
“What would you do if you could embed solar technology in products that see the sun,” asked Susan Stone, the CEO at startup Ubiquitous Energy. “It leads to lots of application space. You can embed solar in a building material because it’s just a coating.”
Invisible Solar
With that idea in mind, Ubiquitous Energy developed the only patented and transparent photovoltaic glass coating that harnesses solar power to generate electricity. The novelty is that windows with technology look and feel like traditional windows, plus they make electricity.
When flat glass is made, it typically receives a low-emissivity (low-E) coating, then the glass is fabricated into a double pane unit. In the case of Ubiquitous Energy’s technology, all of that happens in the same way, with the same equipment, vendors, and suppliers, but in addition to the low-E coating, there are a couple layers added that become the invisible “solar panel.”
